Pasteurization is the process of killing bacteria in foods by application of heat. Milk, for example, is quickly heated to a near boiling temperature, then quickly cooled again before the taste and other desirable properties are affected (heating milk for 30 minutes at 60°C, kills, for example, tuberculosis bacteria without damaging the milk protein). The process was named after its inventor, French scientist Louis Pasteur.

The term cold pasteurization is used sometimes for the use of radioactivity to kill bacteria in food.